Jane Hulstrunk and Dale Leffler

Untitled
By Jane Hulstrunk
Made using Dale Leffler’s poem (below) as inspiration

Untitled
By Dale Leffler

I am writing in the dark, blind as it were by having no vision.
Trying to make an impression on an unknown person, you.
No feedback to hear, no face to read, only my words seemingly empty.
A slow searching start for sure as this paragraph rests here.

I write to inspire you to action. To draw, shoot, paint, produce
optimally, to live.
I too, start with an empty page, blank mind, void screen and
still hands.

With a deep breath to ease the tension, I turn an open ear inside,
And dive in head first, fingers moving  like lumbering locomotives
as letters appear as single file train cars with and without persons
or meanings that meander track ward towards distant destinations.

So, see me through my words, feel my irregular textured themes,
hear a passing train whistle leaving, each car,
openly labeled with the feelings of my not knowing you, yet.

Scared, fearful, excited, and hopeful that
my self-disclosing
partially exposing
and clumsily composing
uncovers a place within you
that is excited about what to do
with this me, here and now
reaching out into
that which is you.

——————————————————-

Untitled
By Jane Hulstrunk
Inspiration Piece provided to Dale Leffler

The Caterpillar
By Dale Leffler
Response to Jane Hulstrunk’s photo (above)

In the cool gray of  a cloudy  Sunday
with the threat of snow just out of sight
I  retreat to the warmth of a quilted throw
and sequester my longings for the sight of a spring sun.

The time as short in length as that of a caterpillar
seeking the crook of a leaf in which to bed
not knowing  the what or why it must prepare
a cushion, cocoon or coffin  and  then  be taken for dead

My words wrap about me, cover me  and confine me
They insolate and isolate or even incubate  my head
unknowingly supported  within this  casement of protection
I  twist with uncertainty, my struggle quilts me a  knotted coverlet.

I give up, give in, I surrender  to the dark and rest.
There, I am nothing, have no future, no more to be
I  am forced to listen to the rampart of my fears
and yet , for now, it is OK,  for today.

Surprisingly, I do not perish, I do not die.
In the stillness I listen to the silence
It nurtures me and I gather strength
acceptance fills this void.

For  I have made this life, with best of intentions
this is my wisdom, my path, my lesson
and so I transform from the victim of  my struggles past
to now  the owner of  my life and all that has happened
and all that ever will.